Re: [Marxism] U.S. House Speaker Urges World To Denounce China Over Tibet

[Walter Lippmann <walterlx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

(The anti-Communist militants who are always denouncing Cuba
for its human rights record are now yelling about Tibet, too.)
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TIBET
China a reminder of the worst of the Stalinist, Maoist eras
Posted on Sat, Mar. 22, 2008

http://www.miamiherald.com/851/story/466031.html

WORLD LEADERS


The following statement was written by VÃclav Havel, former president
of the Czech Republic; Andrà Glucksmann, a French philosopher; Yohei
Sasakawa, a Japanese philanthropist; El Hassan Bin Talal, president
of the Arab Thought Forum and president emeritus of the World
Conference of Religions for Peace; Frederik Willem de Klerk, former
president of South Africa; and Karel Schwarzenberg, foreign minister
of the Czech Republic.

PRAGUE -- The recent events in Tibet and adjoining provinces are
causes for deep concern. Indeed, the dispersal of a peaceful protest
march organized by Tibetan monks, which led to a wave of unrest that
was brutally suppressed by the Chinese military and police, has
caused indignation all over the democratic world.

The reaction of the Chinese authorities to the Tibetan protests
evokes echoes of the totalitarian practices that many of us remember
from the days before communism in Central and Eastern Europe
collapsed in 1989: harsh censorship of the domestic media, blackouts
of reporting by foreign media from China, refusal of visas to foreign
journalists, and blaming the unrest on the ''Dalai Lama's
conspiratorial clique'' and other unspecified dark forces supposedly
manipulated from abroad.

Indeed, the language used by some Chinese government representatives
and the official Chinese media is a reminder of the worst of times
during the Stalinist and Maoist eras. But the most dangerous
development of this unfortunate situation is the current attempt to
seal off Tibet from the rest of the world.

Even as we write, it is clear that China's rulers are trying to
reassure the world that peace, quiet and ''harmony'' have again
prevailed in Tibet. We all know this kind of peace from what has
happened in the past in Burma, Cuba, Belarus and a few other
countries -- it is called the peace of the graveyard.

Merely urging the Chinese government to exercise the ''utmost
restraint'' in dealing with the Tibetan people, as governments around
the world are doing, is far too weak a response. The international
community -- beginning with the United Nations and followed by the
European Union, ASEAN and other international organizations and
individual countries -- should use every means possible to:

â Step up pressure on the Chinese government to allow foreign media,
as well as international fact-finding missions, into Tibet and
adjoining provinces in order to enable objective investigations of
what has been happening.

â Release all those who only peacefully exercised their
internationally guaranteed human rights, and guarantee that no one is
subjected to torture and unfair trials.

â Enter into a meaningful dialogue with the representatives of the
Tibetan people.

Unless these conditions are fulfilled, the International Olympic
Committee should seriously reconsider whether holding this summer's
Olympic Games in a country that includes a peaceful graveyard remains
a good idea.

Â2008 Project Syndicate


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     WALTER LIPPMANN
     Los Angeles, California
     Editor-in-Chief, CubaNews
     http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/
     "Cuba - Un ParaÃso bajo el bloqueo"
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